Philadelphia's Loss to the Saints Should Be Andy Reid's Last as Eagles Coach

As a silent observer, I've tried to be as patient as possible with Andy Reid. It's hard to go crazy when a coach has led you to five conference championship games and a Super Bowl loss, but at this point there just isn't anything left to do. Reid needs to be fired after Philly's embarrassing loss to the Saints.

Losses on national television never do any good for coaches on the hot seat. In 2010, former Reid protege Brad Childress was fired after a big loss to Green Bay on Sunday Night Football. The same happened to Wade Phillips two weeks prior. Owners simply don't like watching their teams lose when people are actually watching.

Reid's coaching (or lack thereof) played a big part in losing this game for the Eagles. For example, look at the Saints' third touchdown of the first half. On 1st-and-goal the Saints ran a running play which bled 40 seconds off of the clock. Reid could have used a timeout to preserve those precious seconds for his offense, but elected not to.

These basic game-management mistakes have become far too common during the Reid era. Whether it is misuse of timeouts, unnecessary or misguided challenges or simply bad play-calling (which we saw plenty of early on as well), Reid has a tendency to make at least a decision or two per game that significantly hurts his team.

Looking past his game-management follies and how inexcusable putting up only 13 points on the Saints is, you have to question the job Reid has done assembling this roster. Jon Gruden made an excellent point during the broadcast: most of Philadelphia's top defenders (DeMeco Ryans, Nnamdi Asomugha, Cullen Jenkins, Jason Babin, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie) weren't drafted by the Eagles.

Look at Reid's drafts over the past few years. He hasn't found any true defensive playmakers, so he's had to go to free agency and overpay veterans. This creates major chemistry issues. It's hard for a group of players who haven't developed together to play as a true unit, especially when they're being coached by someone who doesn't know what he's doing.

The hiring of Juan Castillo made no sense at the time and makes even less now. What could Reid have possibly seen in Castillo that made him think that he could switch to the other side of the ball and make the Eagles defense better than any of the dozens of other qualified defensive coaches available would have?

Things have been better on offense, but not by much. Reid's comical under-use of arguably the league's best running back in LeSean McCoy has been incredibly frustrating to watch. He refuses to abandon his pass-first system even when it clearly isn't working and a very favorable alternative is staring him in the face.

The quarterback situation is just as questionable. You could argue that had Reid not lucked into a magical Michael Vick season in 2010 he'd already be gone. Ironically, Reid has refused to save his season using the same tactic he did in 2010: benching his starting quarterback.

Watching the Eagles this year has been like watching a six-year-old's youth soccer team. It's just a group of Energizer Bunnies running around aimlessly without any clue as to what they're doing or what their goals are. They make too many mistakes (ranked eighth in penalties and fifth in turnovers before the Saints game) to win games.

That has to fall on the head coach. Whatever it was that made Reid so successful early on has clearly faded. Maybe he just needs a change of scenery or maybe he's over the hill, but either way, the Eagles need to fire Andy Reid.